SAS strengthens position in Finnish market

In order to strengthen its long-term position in Finland and improve the profitability of subsidiary Blue1, the SAS Group has opted to phase out the remaining five Avro RJ-85 aircraft and streamline to the Boeing 717. The phase-out of the Avro fleet is expected to start in August and will result in a maximum 85 redundancies within Blue1.The airline says that the refocus on the Finnish market will also result in the closure of a number of European destinations. Some capacity adjustments will also be made on Finnish domestic routes. At the same time, a Tampere-Copenhagen route will be opened.BusinessWire[pictured: SAS Economy Extra; courtesy SAS Group]